What is SunMoon? 
SunMoon tries to pack the most relevant Sun & Moon events for the current time and date (in the user's geographical location).

It marks the rise and set times for sun (mathematical, civil, nautical, astronomical amateur, astronomical professional) and moon (just the mathematical ones).

It plots the position of sun and moon in their daily cycles. And for the sun it is compared with its maximum and minimum variations (summer and winter solstices).

Finally, both are also situated in their global cycles. For the sun it marks us the current zodiacal constellation (and in consequence the season). For the moon its current phase, both graphically and numerically.

 
What I need to use it? 
You can download this addin for free.

Your geographical information (and in fact all the hard-to-compute data) will be stored in a memo (ini) in your REX. To create this localized memo you will also need a little VB program that will generate it for you. See Generating my ini file for more details. I think it is not difficult at all, and you just need to do it once in a year (for moon's rise and set times) or just once in your life if your are not interested in this kind of moon information (in fact it will last until year 2030 or until you move to another location).

 
How to use it 
This addin has no interaction with the user. Any event closes it. It just offers a "picture" of the events at the current date and time.

The screen seems to be cluttered with data, but this is organized in three main sections. 

Left section - Stack of events 
 At the top of the stack we always find the solar noon event and ,at the bottom, the "solar" midnight. The remaining data is situated in two inner columns. The left one is for events in the first part of the day (before solar noon) flowing bottom to top. The right one is for events in the last part of the day (after solar noon) flowing top to bottom and closing the loop.

The remaining events are

Sunrise and Sunset Using several definitions: Mathematical (Ri,Se), Civil(CR,CS), Nautical(NR,NS), Astronomical amateur(aR,aS) and Astronomical professional(AR,AS). At the Astronomical details section you'll find an explanation of each one. Note also that matching pairs are at the same height to mark their symmetry to noon. 
MoonRise and MoonSet Just the mathematical ones (mR,mS). They are not symmetrical and can happen at any time of the day. 

Sign change When the sun exactly enters this sign. Both letters lowercase (ar, ge, li, etc). Once a month ! 

Now Current time (Nw). To make easier to find it among the others, it's the only event without a surrounding box. 
 
Middle section - Daily cycles 
 This section has two areas: the upper one for the sun path in the sky and the lower one for the moon's one.


Sun Path Shows the current path of the sun in the sky from 0 to 24h. The horizon line is shown as a reference. The crossing points with the horizon are the mathematical sunrise and sunset times shown in the above section.

As an additional reference the summer and winter solstice paths (year longest and shortest days) are plot using the same scale. 


Moon Path Same for the moon. 
 
Right section - Global cycles 
 This section also has two areas: the upper one for the sun and the lower one for the moon.


Sun Area Shows a clock of zodiacal signs. In the sample image Pisces is the one shown reversed. Following this, clockwise sense, we find:

SPRING: Aries, Taurus, Gemini.
SUMMER: Cancer, Leo, Virgo.
AUTUMN: Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius.
WINTER: Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.


Moon Area The current moon phase is shown, both graphically and numerically (in cents of lunation). 
 
 
Astronomical details 
I'm not astronomer at all (well, a very amateur one). I've just looked for the technical information in several web pages. In any case, I think the data is accurate enough (3 or 4 min of error at max) compared with reference sources (ie. U.S. Naval Observatory Data Services).

If you find bigger errors in computations, or in the following explanation. Please let me know !

Noon and midnight mark the highest and lowest positions of the sun in its daily cycle. They are also equidistant (more or less) from sunrise and sunset times.

SunRise and SunSet times have several definitions according to your aim:
Mathematical or "normal" one: When the sun edge touches the horizon.
Civil: Marks the limit of brightness for outdoor activity without artificial light (for instance, you cannot read a book).
Nautical: Beyond this point you can't see the horizon line. You say, without doubt, it is night.
Astronomical amateur: At this time you can start/end watching the sky in good conditions if you are only interested in amateur observations.
Astronomical professional: The sky is completely dark at all purposes.
NOTE: These definitions are for ideal atmospheric conditions. In real life, weather has a lot of influence in sky brightness.

The remaining astronomical terms that have appeared in this web page are easier to understand. If you have doubts, please, feel welcome to send me an e-mail.

If you need more detailed information you can have a look at the USNO reference page.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This program and the REX addin ONLY works for geographical locations where the moon and sun rise and set every day. If you live in very northern or southern places this addin isn't prepared to handle this exceptions. :-( Sorry !. But you can always enjoy "midnight sun", we can't !!  
Generating my ini file 
 Fill your data and press the Generate button. Load the generated file ZAstro1.txt as a memo in your REX. That's all !!


Detailed info The dates interval for moon rise and set times. Default is a year starting with current date. 
Localization Your home's geographical longitude and latitude. Default is mine (Barcelona, Spain) ;->. You can find the data of your city in several web pages like this one. You must indicate also your TIME ZONE. 
Info to generate At this moment, you can only unmark Moon's rise and set times to make the ini the smallest one. In any case, a whole year of detailed info is just 8KB long. A reduced one (lasting 30 years for all other data) is 5KB. 
DST Rules Daylight Saving Time rules. If your country doesn't follow this system, just put at "2 AM" is "2 AM" in both lines. You can find detailed info in several web pages like this one or this other one. Default rules are the EEC's. Note that these hours must be specified in the local time zone of the user. 

NOTE: The generator should work now in all version of windows. If you still find problems, please let me know and send me your coordinates. I will be glad to generate the memo for you.

NOTE 2: You should upload the generated MEMO to your REX using REXTOOLS.
 
 
ADDIN 
Addin + Sample memo + Generator Choose this one if you want to create your own ini memo (need VB6 runtime) Download v0.9 

Addin + Sample memo + Generator + Source code Same as above plus addin source code Download v0.9 

Just the Addin + Sample Memo If you don't want/can't/trust installing VB exes in your computer.
You will need to get the memo from this web page or ask me to generate it Download v0.9 

Addin (SOUTH HEMISPHERE) + Sample memo + Generator Is the normal addin , but adapted to the southern hemisphere seasons. Download v0.9 SOUTH HEMISPHERE 


A bit of history... 
This is my second addin, and as it usually happens to me, the original idea was more ambitious than the resulting addin. :-(

At the beginning I though in reading the user's city (and coordinates) from the REX itself and then compute all needed data "online". As I knew what were the rules that predict the sun and moon apparent movements from our point of view I gave up.

As a consequence, I decided to use an external program to compute all needed data and write it in a memo file. The requirement for this data was to be compact and had to permit the REX making its computations using just integers and arithmetical operations. I could manage to do it for the sun and moon phase, but not for the moon rise and set times ! :-(. This was my second defeat: I had to write the moon data for each one of the days.

But what is it addin useful for ? I don't know. I made it basically for pleasure. But it isn't difficult to imagine some utilities for it:
If you go outdoors it will be safe to know when it will be dark.
If you want to make some amateur astronomical observations it is interesting to know whether the moon's light will or not disturb you.
The moon phase is believed to be related with natural events (growing of plants and body hair, menstrual cycles of women, etc).
You recover a bit of the touch with nature, helping you being in harmony with its cycles.
And why not ? Knowing when you can see a beautiful sunset (around civil and nautical ones) for me is reward enough !! ;->
 
Updates, bugs and limitations 
v0.9
====
+ Solved bug in display when a new sign starts.
+ Solved bug in moon phase computation (it showed in rare cases -in some early hours of the day-).
+ Enhaced accuracy of sunrise and sunset times.
+ Better indication when no moon data is found.
+ The moon is now plotted even in its lowest position in the daily cycle.
+ Some minor aesthetics improvements.
+ Solved bugs in generator.

v0.8
====
Initial Public Release

Known bugs & limitations
==================
+ Very northern or southern locations (i.e. Midnight sun) not handled at all !
+ Numerical Moon phase can have little unaccuracies (up to 2 or 3 "centlunations" of unaccuracy) due to the linear and simplified implementation of its evolution. 

